


Robert And Noah In The Woolpack Backroom

by theprincessed



Series: Village Talk [20]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Coda, Family Feels, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 01:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10560962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theprincessed/pseuds/theprincessed
Summary: When Liv and Chas leave to help Sandra, it’s down to Robert to keep an eye on Noah…(Set after the 31st March 2017 episode)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! I know a few people love the idea of Robert and Noah interacting more, so I wrote a little VT this afternoon. Noah wasn't feeling particularly chatty, but Robert had enough feels for them both lol.
> 
> Hope and you enjoy x

The Woolpack is unnervingly quiet as Robert clings to his 6pm phonecall with Aaron. The pub crowd from lunch has died down and is yet to begin properly with the evening drinkers so he guesses that Vic is probably getting started on the washing up in the kitchen whilst Marlon covers the bar. He didn't ever think he'd get used to living under the same roof as Chas and Liv and now they're gone, the place feels strange. The absence of Aaron is more apparent because there's nothing to distract from the silence, not even Charity winding him up about something insignificant.

“Is Liv there?” Aaron asks and Robert's heart sinks, thinking of her sitting on that flight, scared beyond belief for her unconscious mother. Whatever Chas' feelings towards him right now, he's glad that Liv has her to lean on.

“Hey, listen.” he says softly instead of answering the question outright, “I have some bad news to tell you. It's about Sandra.”

It's tough to break it to him over the phone, where he can't see and respond to his reactions physically and he might've avoided it for tonight if Aaron hadn't brought up Liv, but he knew he would. Aaron's always thinking of others when he should be thinking of himself. There's long pauses as Aaron takes in the details of the situation, but eventually Robert is satisfied that he's reassured enough to let him go. He constantly worries about him, but the fact that this will all be over soon, since Aaron won his appeal, keeps him looking forward. He needs to do what he can to make sure Aaron's alright. Everything else is secondary.

“7 more sleeps,” he reminds him, smile tugging helplessly at his lips.

Aaron snorts. “What are you, 5 years old?”

“168 hours,” he adds mischievously, as he hears him breathe down the line.

“ You know I lo - ”

“I know,” Robert interrupts, heart seizing up because as much as he wants Aaron to say it as often as he wants, he can't bear to hear it tonight. “Me too. Miss you.”

They're just saying a lingering goodbye when Robert senses movement behind him as he sits on the sofa in the backroom. Halfway between one door and the next, Noah glances at him sheepishly like he's been caught sneaking out at midnight rather than moving about his home as he pleases. He goes to speak but Robert hears Aaron's voice on the phone and he lifts his hand to get the young boy to wait a minute. With Aaron ending the call, he tosses his phone on the coffee table and turns back to Noah.

“So,” he starts, not sure what he's actually going to say to the boy he barely knows who's been unceremoniously left in his care, “with Chas and Liv gone and your mum staying in Prague with Sarah, it's just us.”

“Yeah,” he mumbles, looking at his feet.

Robert raises his eyebrows. “You're not still scared of me, are you?” he smirks.

Noah's head shoots up as he frowns, “No.”

“Okay, good to know.” Robert stands up and walks towards the fridge to take a cursory look inside. He straightens, expecting Noah to mutter something about one of his friends and disappear, but he doesn't. Instead, he's by the door with a gulf of wariness between them and Robert sighs, already knowing he's going to try and make an effort. Maybe Andy was right about Aaron making him a better man. “Are you hungry? I could get Vic to cobble something together for us? Although don't tell her I said it like that.”

After another beat of reluctance, Noah silently nods and Robert goes to see Vic in the pub kitchen. Some time later, she arrives with two burgers and chips and her eyes widen at Robert in surprise when Noah takes a seat across from him at the table and digs in to the food. He shakes his head once like _don't ask_ and grabs her wrist when she goes to leave.

“Hey, thanks for this. How about we have a drink in the bar after your shift, seeing as I missed all the birthday celebrations this morning because of that meeting? And then tomorrow, maybe we could do something, just the two of us?”

Her hazel eyes soften before she pulls away from him. “You're paying.” she says haughtily.

Robert smiles as she leaves, catching Noah's eye before he looks away again.

He waits nonchalantly for Noah to finish eating before they put the plates in the sink for later, maybe as something to do when Robert can't sleep on the sofa. Noah's gaze is on the door as he sits at the table and Robert nods to him. “You can go if you want...” Suddenly, an idea sparks and he slides his hands in his pockets to puff his chest out. “As long as you don't mind me beating your high score on that thing,”

He points to the Xbox sat underneath the television and continues his arrogance as Noah is unconvinced. “You?”

“Oh yeah. Why? Do ya want to stay and watch?”

He figures if this works then Noah will follow him as Robert sets himself up in front of the games console and grabs two controllers. There have been rare times that he and Aaron have had some healthy competition going on a lazy Sunday morning, so he's not a novice by any means. Even so, he feels a pleased little flutter inside as Noah finally sits down beside him. Without taking his eyes away from the starting screen, Robert passes him the second controller. If nothing else, it's company for the kid.

“Must be tough, not having your mum around,” he tries after playing for a while in relative silence, broken only by Robert's frustrated cursing. He much prefers being up against his husband...in more ways than one.

Noah shrugs. “Used to it.”

Robert's shocked to actually feel something other than apathy towards him and he internally shakes his head at Charity. He can never have his mother back and, from where he's standing, Charity doesn't know how lucky she is. “At least it's for Sarah, this time. But if you ever wanna do this - ” he stops talking when Noah's blue eyes fix on him, wondering whether the boy even wants this kind of offer or if he's just humouring Robert for a quiet life as he gestures around them. “Just – let me know, yeah? Aaron says I'm a good listener. Well, sometimes.”

Noah doesn't react to his feeble joke, his huff of laughter or to show he understands the underlying meaning of what Robert has somehow found himself saying until he beats his arse in the high scores again and actually grins at him until his eyes vanish into happy little lines. Robert's seen him happy before, particularly at Christmas with Samson and Belle and the rest of the Dingles around him, but it feels rare enough that it's a surprise.

In for a penny, he suffers through Noah beating him a couple more times before he truly admits defeat. They turn the TV back to what's on when Robert remembers how he has some episodes of _Game of Thrones_ saved. He's seen them already, but he'd never pass up the opportunity to unwind with a re-watch. Aaron thinks he's weird - “What's the point when you've already seen it?” - but it's almost comforting to know that he's doing something that Aaron finds begrudgingly endearing, even when he's not there to see it.

“You wanna watch some?”

Noah halts getting up and doesn't exactly say Yes, but anything other than a No is good enough for Robert.

His favourite scene in this particular episode is upon them when his eyes land on Noah curled up asleep on his end of the sofa, deep into dreamland. It doesn't do much for his ego because he's been helplessly giving a running commentary the whole time, but it's not like he's going to wake him up. It's been a topsy turvy time for everyone lately and he deserves the space to breathe. Robert suspects that beneath his guardedness he's a good kid really who's had some shoddy home life moments under his belt until Moira. It's quietened down since Charity took on her share of the pub, but Noah's experience still reminds him of Sarah, how she took to being his mum and thinking of Robert as her own flesh and blood no matter what. Every child should have that chance.

He's reaching for one of the throws draped across the back of the sofa when Vic comes barrelling into the room, clearly irritated. “Oi, come on, where's that drink you promised me?” 

“V - ”

“It's my birthday,” she continues over him, taking her blue hat tiredly from her head, “and frankly I'm gasping for a white wine and – what're ya doing with that?”

“ _Vic_ ,” he says pointedly.

It's then that she clocks a sleeping Noah and her fingers touch her mouth. “Oh.” Robert quickly puts the throw blanket over him as she starts to smile. “What's this then? Boys club? If you ask me from what I saw earlier, I think you're a bit of a hero to him.”

Robert rolls his eyes at her teasing. “Don't be daft!” He doesn't tell her that he once threatened him to stop bullying Liv or that he's been known to nick Robert's shower gel for himself because it'll just give his sister more ammunition to turn this into something it's not. So what if this isn't the first day he's caught Noah staring, watching him in the open doorway of the bathroom as he styles his hair ready for work or how Noah's posture straightens, sticking his chest out confidently when Robert walks past him in the pub. “It just didn't feel right, to leave him,” he explains to her his no-show.

“I'll see you tomorrow then,” she smiles, looking at him like she knows too much whilst at the same time like Robert is brand new.

“That's if you can remember it.” he quips, “You're old now,”

She swats half-heartedly in his direction with her hat. “Cheeky sod. If I'm old then you're _ancient_ , Rob. G'night.”

“Yeah, 'night.”

Miraculously, Noah hasn't stirred. Robert knows he probably won't be tired when it comes to sleeping in their beds, but he's not a parent and he's certainly not Noah's, so he picks up the TV remote again and settles down for a quiet night in.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, lovelies x
> 
> I'm on tumblr at [theprincessed](http://www.theprincessed.tumblr.com). Come chat to me. :)


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